Ecobreves – BRAZIL: Sisal Fiber Replaces Plastic in Cars

In addition to being used for rugs and rope, sisal fiber (Agave sisalana) is being used to produce car parts, like bumpers, mirror holders and panels, according to Brazil's National Industrial Education Service.

Ecobreves – VENEZUELA: Andean Community Tourism

The Tropical Andes Program foundation launched its Southern Pathways project, aimed at building a community tourism network among the mountain dwellers in the southern Venezuelan state of Mérida, coordinator Yves Lesenfants told Tierramérica.

Ecobreves – HONDURAS: Communities Help Nature to Heal

Seventeen communities in the southern Honduran department of El Paraíso will begin efforts in the next two months to preserve the area flora and fauna as part of a sustainability and poverty-fighting project promoted by the European Union.

Amazon Deforestation Undermines Brazil's Climate Leadership

Brazil is confident in completing its four-year goals for halting forest loss in the Amazon and thus also dramatically reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Parasails Can Move Ships

Wind propulsion returns to the seas as in times of yore, but don't look for the traditional mainsail.

EAST ASIA: THE END OF AN ERA

As the US recession drags Asia down, there has been much speculation about a regional response to the crisis. Seemingly lending substance to this have been a trilateral summit of the leaders of China, Japan, and South Korea last December and a flurry of bilateral talks between Japan's Taro Aso and Korea's Lee Myung-bak, all of which had economic cooperation at the top of the agenda.

Tropical Forests Fight for Survival

The reforestation of vast tropical areas poses the challenge of determining whether second-growth forests will be able to serve as habitat for the millions of unique species that were there before.

Water Pushed to the Limit

The World Water Protocol, which seeks inclusion in the negotiations of the post-Kyoto climate treaty, underscores the urgency of regulating a scarce resource, a common good shared by all humanity.

Ecobreves – HONDURAS: Seeking Funds for Renewable Energy

The Honduran government is seeking 400 million dollars to build two hydroelectric dams to meet the country's energy needs, and to promote alternative renewable energy projects, like biofuels, with Brazil as a consultant.

Ecobreves – MEXICO: Imports of Used Cars Could Be Toxic

With the doors opened Jan. 1 in Mexico to imports of cars 10 years and older from the United States, air pollution rates could see a dramatic increase, warn observers.

Ecobreves – BRAZIL: Energy Plan Contradicts Climate Plan

Two weeks after taking on the goals of its National Climate Change Plan, Brazil announced its 10-year Energy Expansion Plan, which calls for building more than 80 fossil-fuel-based thermoelectric plants and 71 hydroelectric plants (many in the Amazon) by 2017.

OPERATION IMPUNITY

To justify itself, state terrorism creates terrorists: it sows hatred and harvests alibis. Everything indicates that this bloodbath in Gaza, which its creators claim was designed to eliminate terrorists, will result in a proliferation of them.

RETIREMENT ITALIAN STYLE – WOMEN AND THE PENSION TABOO

The difference in retirement age between men and women -65 and 60, respectively- in Italy lies at the intersection of two major national problems: pension reform, which is a political taboo in the country, and the unequal treatment of women in the labour market in terms of access and pay. It is discriminatory, intolerable, destructive to women, and amounts to a colossal waste of the great untapped capital of Italy's female population.

CHECK-UP OR AUTOPSY? DIAGNOSING THE US ECONOMIC BODY

The mainstream media in 2008 ran myriad diagnoses of the sickness of the US economy. Central bankers, politicians, and their economic advisors sought to explain the economy's swoon in medical terms. The economic patient was described as having suffered a heart attack, a seizure, a collapse, a loss of animal spirits or confidence. Our body economic was described as being in shock, needing liquidity injections, on life support, on the operating table, responding to the medicine and, hopefully, in the recovery room.

Ecobreves – VENEZUELA: When Garbage Becomes a Problem

Groups of vandals set fire to a landfill where 65,000 tons of solid waste, collected in the north-western Venezuelan city of Maracaibo over the last week of December and the first days of January, had been dumped.

Ecobreves – CUBA: More Organic Fertilizers from Sugarcane

Cuba’s sugar industry is setting out to increase its organic fertilizer production and use, as it recognizes that these fertilizers are not only good for the environment, but also for the economy as they cut back on imports of chemical fertilizers.

Ecobreves – HONDURAS: New Forestry Map Announced

In six months Honduras will have a new forestry map that will enable it to accurately identify its ecosystems, woodland coverage, and biodiversity, Agriculture and Cattle Minister Héctor Hernández said to Tierramérica.

Anti-Hurricane Green Map

Using a Green Map -- a portrait of an area’s cultural, social and ecological resources -- a Cuban municipality was able to rebuild a hurricane-ravaged school on its own.

Toward an Environmental Rationality

The conflict between economy and ecology and that impossible goal that is “sustainable development” give rise to concern over the feasibility of an alternative economy, writes Mexican environmental researcher Enrique Leff in this exclusive column for Tierramérica.

Ecobreves – CHILE: Certified Organic Crops on the Rise

During the 2007-2008 season, 30,443 hectares were certified as organic in Chile, according to a report by the governmental Office for Agricultural Studies and Policies (ODEPA).

Ecobreves – BRAZIL: Green Seal for Technology

The University of Sao Paulo closed the year 2008 with two important environmental initiatives: the green seal for technological equipments, and the project for a Sustainable Environments and Climate Studies Center.